28% Americans Suffer Hidden Concussion & Vision Issues (Are You One of Them?) | Dr. Bryce Appelbaum

Summary

Podcast Summary: Detox Nation with Sinclair Kennally

Episode Title: 28% Americans Suffer Hidden Concussion & Vision Issues (Are You One of Them?)
Guest: Dr. Bryce Appelbaum
Date: December 15, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this riveting episode, host Sinclair Kennally interviews Dr. Bryce Appelbaum, a leading functional optometrist, about the hidden epidemic of concussions and their often-overlooked impact on vision and broader health. The conversation dives into how concussions—many of which are undiagnosed—can manifest as persistent symptoms, especially in the context of our screen-heavy, visually demanding modern life. The episode blends personal anecdotes, clinical insights, and practical steps, aiming to empower listeners to re-examine overlooked sources of chronic symptoms and take proactive steps for brain and eye health.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Overlooked Prevalence and Consequences of Concussion

• Hidden Epidemic:

  • Dr. Appelbaum reveals that "28% of Americans have had at least one concussion in their lifetime" ([00:00]).
  • Many fail to connect persistent symptoms (like headaches, dizziness, or difficulty focusing) to a past, even seemingly minor, head injury.

• Vision vs. Eyesight Distinction:

  • Eyesight is simply the ability to see, while vision is how the brain organizes and processes visual input ([00:48]).
  • "You can't have a head injury and not have vision be impacted. It's just a matter of at what level." ([01:33])

• Modern Context—Screens as a Pandemic:

  • Modern screen use has dramatically increased visual stress and changed how concussions manifest and linger ([01:55]).

2. Why Many Concussions Go Undiagnosed and Untreated

• Medical System Limitations:

  • Conventional medicine often focuses on “catastrophic injuries" and structural damage, missing microfunctional disruptions typical in concussions ([02:35]).
  • Imaging rarely captures the problem unless using advanced functional techniques, leading to underdiagnosis.

• Subjective Symptoms and Diagnostic Gaps:

  • “If you've seen one concussion, you've seen one concussion. Everybody functions differently after a concussion...” ([04:43])
  • Lack of standardized, comprehensive vision-related diagnostic protocols.

3. Vision's Central Role in Health and Brain Function

• Vision as the Dominant Sense:

  • Two-thirds of brain neurons process information from the eyes ([00:48]).
  • Vision issues after a concussion can derail everyday tasks, contribute to sensory overload, and interfere with cognition, sleep, and systemic functions ([03:53]).

• Vision and Neurodivergence:

  • Links between vision problems and learning/attentional diagnoses like dyslexia, ADD, ADHD ([08:11]).
  • “Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD—they’re incomplete diagnoses without addressing vision first. Vision directs behavior… if you can’t control your eyes and their ability to focus, you can’t control your mind.” ([08:11])

4. Clinical and Personal Anecdotes

• Sinclair’s personal experience: repeated undiagnosed concussions via car accidents, initially overlooked because treatment was limited to whiplash, not brain and vision function ([06:27]).

• Coping Mechanisms:

  • Sinclair: “I was basically just like glancing, grabbing one nugget and then I would jump into the fray in school ...”
    Dr. Appelbaum: “Do you know how common that is though?... It's crazy what we can do when we're... solving a problem.” ([09:45])

• Importance of multi-modal, personalized care versus “one size fits all.”

5. Dr. Appelbaum's Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment

• Advanced, Holistic Evaluation:

  • Uses a multi-faceted process: 3D and 2D eye movement tracking, reading eye movement software, spatial perception tests ([10:54]).
  • Customizes therapy integrating movement, cognitive tasks, vestibular input, and advanced (VR/AR) and low-tech tools.

• Intensive Vision Therapy Programs:

  • Five-day, 12-hour intensive with data-driven adjustments, followed by robust 6-month home therapy ([12:55]).
  • Virtual reality games tailored for ocular training.

• Philosophy:

  • “Every concussion, with the right motivation, with the right compliance and with the right work, can get back to previous level of function.” ([14:54])

6. Integrating Vision Care with Chronic Illness Recovery

• Vision dysfunction may block or obscure progress in treating mold exposure, Lyme, parasites, systemic inflammation, or trauma ([15:15]).
• “Just the takeaway is put your vision first...vision is very likely impacting brain function, fatigue, mental clarity, productivity, happiness...” ([15:36])
• Recommends addressing systemic healing in tandem with vision rehabilitation for best outcomes.

7. Finding the Right Practitioner

• Seek specialists board certified in vision therapy and rehabilitation; check via the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) ([17:03]).
• Warns of inconsistency and lack of regulation in the field—"Wild Wild West"—making it crucial to choose experienced practitioners ([17:38]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Unseen Impact of Concussion:
  • “Most people don’t realize that present symptoms can often be tied to or connected to a prior head injury.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([02:23])
• Medical System Gaps:
  • “If you’ve seen one concussion, you’ve seen one concussion.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([04:43])
• Vision vs. Behavior:
  • “If you can’t control your eyes and their ability to focus, you can’t control your mind’s stability.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([08:11])
• On Neurotoxins as Brain Trauma:
  • “You can look at mold toxicity as a brain injury.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([20:13])
• On Vision Recovery:
  • “Vision problems post-head injury don't resolve with time. The symptoms sometimes do and we learn how to compensate and adapt. But the problems remain unless we figure out how to use our eyes to tap into our brain to rewire things.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([21:07])
• Simple Action Steps:
  • “Take vision breaks. People have probably heard of the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a break for 20 seconds and look at something at least 20 feet away.” – Dr. Bryce Appelbaum ([23:00])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Concussion Statistics, Vision’s Role: [00:00] – [02:09]
• Why Concussions Go Undiagnosed: [02:35] – [04:17]
• How to Assess for Concussion-Related Vision Issues: [05:28] – [07:46]
• Vision and Neurodivergence/Personal Story: [07:52] – [10:11]
• Therapeutic Assessment and Intervention: [10:54] – [14:54]
• Concussion Complicating Chronic Illness: [15:15] – [16:48]
• Finding Qualified Vision Specialists: [17:03] – [19:38]
• How Minor Head Injuries Impact Life: [19:38] – [22:08]
• Home Tips: Vision Breaks & Exercises: [23:00] – [29:06]
• Vision Performance Training/ScreenFit: [29:08] – [30:08]

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Actionable At-Home Tips

Three Strategies Dr. Appelbaum Recommends ([23:00]–[29:06]):

1. Take Frequent Vision Breaks:
   • Practice the 20-20-20 rule to relieve near visual stress and prevent eye fatigue.
2. Practice “Eye Push-Ups”:
   • Focus on your thumb as you bring it closer and farther to stimulate and relax your focusing system ([26:10]).
3. Selfie Eye Movements:
   • Using a mirror/phone, track your own eye movement while turning your head for vestibular-visual integration ([28:13]).

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Resources & Where to Find Dr. Appelbaum

• Website: MyVisionFirst.com ([30:10])
• Social: Instagram @drbryceappelbaum (“Applebaum EL not LE”)
• ScreenFit Vision Training: Home program for digital eye strain and recovery

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is warm, supportive, action-oriented, and driven by both personal experience and advanced clinical knowledge. Listeners are encouraged to question conventional understandings of concussions, consider the centrality of vision in health, and seek expert, holistic intervention. Empowerment and hope are strong themes throughout.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

28% of Americans have had at least one concussion in their lifetime. Present symptoms can often be tied to a prior head injury. The brain just gets flooded with all this input that it doesn't know what to do with. The headaches, the eye strain, the dizziness, the nausea, the light sensitivity that comes with screens and the simplest of tasks now become really hard.

[Podcast Host]

Thanks so much for being here. I can't wait to do a deep dive with you. Dr. Bryce, about concussions. What we see in our practice is that folks who have experienced concussions can be the ones that have a long, hard road to understanding what is really wrong with them. Why don't supplements work for me? Why don't medications work for me? Why am I not healing as fast as other people? And it takes way too long to figure out. Concussions are a part of the puzzle. So as a concussion expert, what do you wish people understood about concussions? What happens during the event and then what happens afterwards in your body?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

So I'm a functional eye doctor, and from my perspective, I think first we have to understand there's a difference between our eyesight and our vision. Our eyesight is our ability to see. It's how we can focus light clearly. It's a symptom. Vision is entirely brain. So much more complex in how our brain organizes, filters, and stores all the input coming in through the eyes. So after a head injury, eyesight can get impacted, but often doesn't. Vision always gets impacted, and vision always gets impacted because it is our dominant sense. But more importantly, there are more areas of our brain dedicated to processing vision than all of the other senses combined. Two thirds of the neurons coming into our brain come from our eyes. So you can't have a head injury and not have vision be impacted. It's just a matter of at what level. And having a concussion today in 2025 is very different than having it 20 years ago, even five years ago, because of the amount of visual stress from our world and screen time becoming new pandemic and being a part of everything and. And after head injury, how we use our eyes and how we filter input from our eyes always gets impacted. So then how you're engaging with space, how you're reading, how you're on screens, how you're just living a normal life can be so, so challenging. After head injury, do you think there

[Podcast Host]

are any other inflammatory factors that might make concussions more difficult?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

A thousand percent. So the neuroinflammation that comes with a concussion manifests within the visual system. And most people think that concussions only happen to athletes. But as you know, and as everyone listening knows, concussions happen all the time.

[Podcast Host]

Everyone has a head.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

NIH says 28% of Americans have had at least one concussion in their lifetime. And most people don't realize that present symptoms can often be tied to or connected to a prior head injury.

[Podcast Host]

Why is that?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

The reactive medical system doesn't know what to look for from a vision perspective, when there's suspected head injury. Somebody gets a head injury, or thinks they do, they go to the er, they go to their primary care doctor, and they're basically looking for the catastrophe. They're making sure there's no blood pooling, everything's attached. Rarely does that bad stuff happen. If it does, you have to rule it out, of course. But they're looking for structural changes. And so much of what happens after a concussion is at such a microcellular level that you don't really see it in terms of imaging unless you're doing the right type of functional imaging, Whether it's a spect scan or functional mri, which rarely is done. But then how it impacts function, that's what becomes devastating for so many people. And the sensory overload that we can experience from the mall, the grocery store, even, like, chasing after our kids or around our house, the brain just gets flooded with all this input that it doesn't know what to do with. And then it becomes chaos in their brain and confusion everywhere in their life. And it becomes something that's changed how they were doing the simplest of tasks that now become really hard, right?

[Podcast Host]

And an overwhelmed nervous system is not going to upregulate, detox and drainage and digestion because it's kind of constantly being a state of stress.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And then the motherboard can't direct everything the way it's supposed to. Sleep gets impacted, Every systemic function gets impacted. And I know I'm biased, but vision is a big piece of that puzzle that should be tying together input from all of these other systems and allowing the brain to function the way it's supposed to.

[Podcast Host]

I also have to ask you what actually qualifies as a concussion, Because I think a lot of people have had concussions and don't realize it.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

So the diagnostic criteria in textbooks and in the literature Is very different than in reality. I mean, to me, it's any injury that is minor or major that disrupts function. And so if you have a baseline, especially from a vision perspective, of how the focusing system's operating, the iteming system, the depth perception, if you know where things were and that There's a shift. And that to me is diagnostic from a vision perspective of something, some event elicited a change. But in the er, in your primary care doctor, oftentimes they don't diagnose the concussion unless there is devastating symptoms or one of the trifecta of symptoms like the massive headaches, the disorientation, or the disrupted gait. And there's so much more than that that gets impacted. And also, if you've seen one concussion, you've seen one concussion. Everybody functions differently after a concussion, and everyone's profile manifests very differently. So there can't really be a one size fits all approach for treatment, of course. But even from a diagnostic criteria, we're not doing enough to look at the right areas to see where the opportunities for improvement are.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, so what are the right areas to look at?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Vision, of course, first and foremost.

[Podcast Host]

How do you do that? Because that's very amorphous for people right now.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

It is. So not everyone has access to the right specialists or the right testing. So the simplest of tasks that require very synergistic effects between the different systems, reading, driving, navigating through space, even just engaging with the world. I mean, if there's a change in any of those areas, immediately a red flag should go up and we should pull back and seek out further treatment. More testing, and then the right type of work. But treatment options for head injury. Nutrition's a big role, supplementation's a big role, systemic function's a big role, but then also just how your body is regulated. And that's something that so many people with head injuries have dysregulation before the head injury and don't even know it, and they've just compensated. And then it's like, oh, my God, the carpet got pulled out from underneath me.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I think that's what happened to me. By the time I got to visual therapy, I had had, first of all, several car accidents and never made that because I got treated for whiplash. Right. But never thought about the actual impact to my head of getting thrown against the seat in a state of extreme stress.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And many doctors would say that's not a head injury. Even the most sudden little acceleration or deceleration of the brainstem, it's a traumatic brain injury. Yet if you're not talking to the right people, they're not gonna diagnose that. So you've had repeated head injuries before that and didn't even put the pieces together?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, exactly. There was that piece for me, and what I didn't realize was I was white knuckling it and spending so much of my energy trying to use. Trying to make sense of what I was seeing, just using basically, force of will because my eyes couldn't read left to right. They would drop down the page. I couldn't read a sentence. I couldn't write a sentence. You know, and you can blame that on lime and mold and all the things, but functionally, it also didn't work.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

You know, and the same vision problems can come from a lot of those different areas that you mentioned, but it's neuroinflammation manifesting through the visual system. So even if you just did vision therapy but didn't take a systemic approach, you wouldn't have had the same outcomes. And that's why a holistic model is really needed for every head injury.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, that's a great point.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

How did you get to get vision to be a part of the care team?

[Podcast Host]

Because my sister discovered that she was dyslexic, and she went to vision therapy, and she had just been diagnosed with ADD and adhd. And I got a late, you know, adult diagnosis of add. And what she was describing about how hard the world was for her, I was like, well, that's how it is for me. What are you talking about?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

You're bringing up such crucial points here. I mean, dyslexia, add, adhd, they're incomplete diagnoses without addressing vision first. Yeah, vision directs behavior. And if you can't control your eyes and their ability to focus, you can't control your mind instability, focus. So even like that, adult onset of add, it's not a blood test that says you have add. Right. It's based off of how you're functioning and symptoms. There's such parallel and so many similarities between all of these different labels where treatment for you and your sister seemed kind of similar, even though you're doing different work, but you're addressing from the same angles, the same systems.

[Podcast Host]

Right. And this is not a popular opinion in a neurodivergent celebratory world, but I do get a lot of those labels and diagnoses. So I'm going to just speak about my personal experience. I think a lot of the experience of ADD for me was about compensating for growing up in a traumatic environment and needing to manage my energy in a place where I was constantly overwhelmed and felt overpowered by other people's emotions and did not feel safe, so I would scatter my attention. And then I also had these visual issues. But I loved to learn so nobody ever knew. But they didn't know that I couldn't read. I was basically just like glancing, grabbing one nugget and then I would jump into the fray in school to get my hand up to let the teacher know I'm here, I care. This is the one nugget I got. And then I would pick up the rest from the rest of the discussion

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

and from your ears.

[Podcast Host]

I didn't even know I was doing that. Yeah. So I'm heavily auditory.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Do you know how common that is though? Yeah. And how much more common that is now? When kids are being exposed to screens and technology at earlier ages, being asked to read earlier than ever before, if you don't have the foundation in place, you either adapt or you avoid. And you being as brilliant as you are, you figured out ways to compensate. It's crazy what we can do when we're. We figure out roundabout ways to solve a problem.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. And then you add a few head injuries on top of that.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

I say this with love. I mean, you had functional vision problems that then we're just different after the head injury. Which means the treatment path forward would not be the linear path. If we were saying that there was a linear path, it's very zigzaggy because there's probably lots of gaps in terms of how your brain was processing input from the eyes and the areas of the brain that you were tapping into.

[Podcast Host]

So people fly in all over the world to work with you for vision therapy and also for head injuries, for these concussions. So give us an example of a range of different treatment options, like how you would think about, like, yes, I have these complicating factors to my health history, you know, how would you approach that versus someone else?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

So the people that I'm fortunate enough to help that come in from around the world, I mean, we're doing a really thorough testing battery from day one to know exactly what's happening. And we're looking at systems in really unique ways. So take your tracking system for instance. We're going to look at it and evaluate it in three dimensional space. We'll evaluate in 2D space, we'll evaluate it on a screen with eye tracking software that can measure exactly what your eyes are doing. Going laterally, going up and down, following a pattern, jumping. We can show exactly what your right eye is doing, exactly what your left eye is doing, how many eye movements they're making, whether they're backtracking your speed of reading, your comprehension of reading. And then we can see are those problems there? Because of an eye movement control issue or are they there because of a spatial mismatch where maybe your aligning your eyes as if you're perceiving the page to be farther away than where it is in space or closer, Maybe your eyes are functioning different places. So once we know exactly what's going on and we've lifted up the hood to see all the areas of opportunity, then we design a customized approach that we know the first session, what we're doing, but then beyond that, I mean, you're going to dictate the work. And so our treatment is really holistic. We're incorporating movement, cognition, balance, vestibular input early and often because vision doesn't operate in isolation of these systems. And we're relying on technology like VR and AR and eye tracking computers with also really low tech stuff where maybe you're wearing filters or lenses or prism, which lets you know that when you're looking at a certain target, the right eye is seeing, let's say a clown, the left eye is seeing a hat. And we're moving these images and then asking you to adjust your eyes to make them seem like they're on top of each other. And then when you see them slip, we'll then use prism or some sort of way to move them to where they should be. Teach you what it feels like, what it looks like, the depth that ensues when your eyes are pointing in the same place, the brain is turning onto that information, you're perceiving depth, and then ask you to reproduce that as you're walking forwards and backwards, or it's projected on an overhead or out a window. And then we substitute the device we were using with your skills so that eventually the hat is on top of the the clown, because you know exactly where that is. And you can aim, focus, and align your eyes exactly where they should be. So for our intensive programs, we're doing about 12 hours of work customized with our doctors, with our team for five days. The fifth day on Friday, we then do an evaluation, same test we did day one. We are ruthless with data collection, so we're looking at everything objectively, but then also outlining all the symptoms, all the goals. You'll see clear changes if we're doing the right work, with the right motivation in the right place. And then we put you on a really robust home program for the next six months where you meet with doctors every week, two weeks depending on the case. We give you different exercises to work on and then how to increase the level of demand. But we also Have a really cool customized virtual reality program. If you were with us, we'd give you a headset. It's yours to keep when we're done. Whatever game it is that you're playing, maybe you're chopping fruit, popping balloons, but we're adjusting the ocular. So you're having to converge your eyes or diverge your eyes, or adjusting the brightness, the contrast, the glare, whatever it is. We then get your results on the back end. The doctor goes back in, adjusts the settings. So next time you play the next game on the docket, you're just playing the fun game. But we're changing the ocular demands. Rewiring the brain from a three dimensional perspective, from a virtual world, from an artificial world, allows for integration to be faster and at a higher level. And then we continue to chip away at that moving forward. So for most concussions, a lot of work is done in those five days, but we're probably going to need more maintenance work beyond that, maybe even more beyond that. But we'll be able to identify that for sure from day one. And then we also put you in, we have an online vision training program called Screen Fit, which has specific lessons, sequenced, the right ways so that we can chip away at the challenges and get you to use your brain the way in which it's wired. So although this is crazy, I'm a firm believer that every concussion with the right motivation, with the right compliance and with the right work, can get back to previous level of function. And in someone like you, in your case, gets you probably to a better place without even knowing. It's almost like a blessing that that head injury rerouted life and got you to unlock so much potential in a new way.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, so that's somebody complicated like me. What about somebody who is deep in the throes of chronic illness? You discover partway through trying to resolve the root causes of that. Say it's mold, infections, parasites, trauma, and they're not responding the way they want to be to tools. And you discover, oh, there's a concussion complicating this.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

I hope everybody listening to this. Just the takeaway is put your vision first and think that vision absolutely could be. You're biased, I'm of course biased, but vision is very likely impacting brain function, fatigue, mental clarity, productivity, happiness. I mean, even if you think about how much effort it was taking your brain to use your eyes to filter all the sensory input coming in through the eyes, even mental health can be often be impacted and compromised. And you're spending so Much time and effort and frustration trying to engage with a screen that by the time you're done with your work day or school day, you don't have the patience to talk with loved ones and to do other things. But I think in the person you're describing, I mean, definitely hitting this systemically first or concurrently is needed. So the right supplements to support brain function and healing, the right nutritional protocols, the right environmental modifications, and very often doing those alone has a massive result and impact. But then if we're tacking vision onto that, where very likely vision is involved, you're just gonna get better results faster.

[Podcast Host]

I think what you're saying gives people a lot of hope, first of all, but then it comes down to how do you select the right person? Because there's only one Dr. Bryce. So what are you looking for in a vision therapist? You know, in your specialist?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Absolutely. So it's important for everybody to rule out bad stuff, but not necessarily think that bad stuff is occurring right away. So seeing the right type of neurologist, the right type of functional neurologist, whoever that may be, is a member of the treatment team. But it's for sure a team that's needed. From an eye doctor standpoint, you want somebody ideally who's board certified in vision therapy and rehabilitation and vision development and rehabilitation. There's an organization called covd, the College of Optometrists and Vision Development. So you can type in your address and click a box and it'll give you a search radius of the practitioner is closest to you. From an evaluation standpoint, if you're seeing somebody board certified, you have a pretty good indication of what's going on. But unfortunately, the treatment that's available, it's like the wild, wild west in terms of the eyes. And just because you're board certified doesn't mean you know what to do for treatment. And this isn't like physical therapy for sprained mcl, where you're getting a dozen sessions for grade one and two dozen for grade two. And depending on where you go in town, you're kind of getting the same work and the same outcomes. There is no consistency yet on what vision therapy looks like. There's now OTs, PTs, coaches, trainers, teachers, vision coaches doing what they're calling vision therapy because the need is so high and so often the work for head injury from a vision perspective is ocular, motor. So it's X axis and it's visual vestibular work. So look at this and turn your head and do this. And to me, life takes place on the Z axis, which is eye coordination and focus and depth perception. And so you really need somebody who knows what they're doing here. That's why the work we do is actually we've now changed our model and our type of work we call vision performance training because it takes a bunch of different modalities and kind of merges them into this hybrid model. So it takes vision therapy, vision training, orthoptics, vestibular physical therapy, even aspects of sensory integration based occupational therapy, and creates this really robust approach that is addressing challenges from a bunch of different perspectives, but that really delivers results quickly. And with time. We'll be training other doctors. We've trained 16 doctors in this already with our residency program. But that's not. And we need to be having 16,000 of these doctors out there. And with time, I think there are more people that are recognizing this is a massive need for the world.

[Podcast Host]

Know how many concussions are happening if most people don't even realize they've had them?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

I mean, 28% is just in the US and that's very likely underreported. It can be bumping your head on the countertop. It can be a playground accident when you're younger. It can be just a quick snap of your head and you snap things in the wrong direction and all of a sudden brain function is completely compromised. I mean, I've seen patients who weightlifting felt this onslaught of symptoms after particular pressure buildup and then all of a sudden everything was different. I mean, you can look at mold toxicity as a brain injury.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely neurotoxic, of course.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

So from all of those, I mean, I would say it's probably hard to find somebody who truly has never had any type of insult to their brain impacting function.

[Podcast Host]

I'm thinking of a team member who is young and very fit and healthy and self aware and exercises and eats intentionally. And he lightly bumped his head against his friend's wall as he sat down too heavy on his couch.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Yep.

[Podcast Host]

And immediately his ability to withstand being on zoom or screens for hours a day completely impacted his exercise tolerance, his energy levels, his mood, his sleep.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And that's taking already a disrupted eye brain connection and then blasting it with high energy light for these devices that are asking our brain and bodies to do things they're not intended to do.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And I think what many people listening are probably really frustrated with is the practitioners out there who either take the old school model of well, you got your bell rung, you're fine, get back in there to life, or oh, no, Go sit in a dark room for days or weeks or months and eventually things are going to get better. I'm a firm believer that from a vision perspective, vision problems post head injury don't resolve with time. The symptoms sometimes do and we learn how to compensate and adapt. But the problems remain unless we figure out how to use our eyes to tap into our brain to rewire things.

[Podcast Host]

Another important piece to this, some health symptoms that he had resolved previously came back digestive wise. I think that's an important piece for people to realize. Like this is a big part of your neurology. Yeah. And so it's absolutely going to impact your ability to be in a parasympathetic dominant state. Enough time of the day to do your digestion drainage detox.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And when you're in that fight or flight response from a vision perspective, our pupils widen and we get locked in with tunnel vision. And then all of a sudden, literally World War three could be going on around you, but you don't even notice because you're so locked in like you're looking through paper towel holders just to try and remain safe and get by. And that impacts driving, that impacts navigating through space, going up and down stairs, bumping into things. And then even when we're reading it on screens, I mean, that alone is creating stress to our bodies and then we're becoming even more tunneled in. So our thinking, our attention, our behavior, and of course our vision just get locked up. And then doing that all day long just embeds the problem and makes things that much more frustrating.

[Podcast Host]

It's a really big problem, really widespread. Everybody here is self diagnosing as they're listening to this. What are three things that people can do at home right now to support themselves, you know, in this weird world that we're in?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Absolutely. Well, I think it starts with near visual stress and screen time because everybody's involved with screen time. Average eight to ten year old in America spends six hours a day on screens. The average adult spends seven hours and four minutes a day. That's average. So number one, first thing we should all be doing is taking vision breaks. People have probably heard of the 20, 2020 rule. What that means is if you haven't, we'll share what that is. It's at least every 20 minutes, taking a break at least for 20 seconds and looking at something at least 20ft away. So disengaging, ideally, getting up, tapping in, getting outside, getting some movement involved, getting natural sunlight and resting and relaxing the visual system. Because when we're on screens, we mention things get locked up. I mean, if you were to squeeze your fists and hold them tightly for a few seconds, your hands start to hurt. But if you kind of let go and give breaks, you can do that for much longer. When we're on screens, our focusing system literally gets locked up. And the tension over time is what causes the, the headaches, the eye strain, the dizziness, the nausea, the light sensitivity that comes with screens.

[Podcast Host]

So, full disclosure, I'm actually planning to use screen fit myself and so I'm really excited to see what happens with it. And we're actually also going to pay for our entire team to use it.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Amazing.

[Podcast Host]

Because maybe it's a little heavy handed to say it's unethical not to, but you know, if I want everybody to be at their best and I'm paying people to think well and everybody needs to be pouring into, you know, our folks who need us the most, chronic illness people, of course we need to do that.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

We have a leader who cares what's a little scary right now. And by the time this goes live, there hasn't been any type of lawsuit with corporate America over the consequences of virtual work and telework yet. There's a few brewing and there's now companies that are taking your lead and recognizing, oh my gosh, we have to do things to support the ibrain connection for our employees because we're asking them to do things that as humans we're not meant or intended to do, like staring at screens all day long. So I love that and your team is lucky to have you as their valiant leader. Thanks.

[Podcast Host]

Not really. I come with a lot of packages.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

We all do.

[Podcast Host]

I'll leave the link in the show notes for everybody to find it.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

So that was step one. So one thing we do, take breaks. Step two would be ideally, like do some sort of vision training that can help establish the foundation to thrive in this digital world. But not even just with digital devices. I mean, the visual demands of daily life are crazy and they're so overwhelming and hard after a head injury for everybody. And it's just a matter of is it short term or is it long term and indefinite and I mean, there's even simple eye exercises we could talk about that everybody could do every day or more days than not.

[Podcast Host]

Well, you can't say that and not do it. Show us at least one.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

All right, I'm going to show you a simple one that has massive, massive implications in terms of improvement if we actually do it and kind of like exercise for Your body, you got to do the right exercise to get better shape. So if you do the right vision exercises, that can help. So eye push ups and near far focus. We call them eye push ups. So let's do it together. So cover up an eye.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And then everything we're going to talk about, I want to make sure there's no equipment needed so there's no excuses for why we can't do this.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Just stick your arm out.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Look at your thumb.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, I'm already irritated. Hilarious.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Okay, slowly bring your thumb as close to you as you can until it gets a little blurry. And then stop and make it clear. And then once it gets a little blurry, stop, make it clear. So think about looking hard at it, stimulating the focusing system, kind of locking in that internal muscle. Your pupil will get smaller. Hold it for five seconds and then look out across the room as far away as you can for five seconds and relax the focus. Look soft back at your thumb for five seconds. Look hard back in the distance for five. So this is a gross stimulation relaxation.

[Podcast Host]

This so much.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

I mean, that alone. If this is eliciting symptoms and you're as far away as you are, I cannot wait for us to talk after the camera shuts off because we can help a lot. So you can do it same amount of time, right eye as left eye. And I'm sure you'll notice that your thumb with your right eye versus your thumb with your left eye, probably at different distances.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, yeah, I need to. I'll even out after this.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Which means literally when you're up close, your brain is focusing your eyes at different planes because it's hard to focus them at the same plane because of this rivalry or competition doing this every day. You will not need stronger reading glasses. If you're in the 40s or older, you're probably 20 years away from that, but we'll get there. You'll also not need to likely change the prescription in your glasses because you're maintaining better flexibility and stamina of the inside muscles of the eyes responsible for clarity. And also you're going to be able to take in more space and have better rapport with space. So that's a simple thing. You could do it in the bathroom at a stoplight, in between Zoom calls. 30 seconds per eye. You do that 30 seconds a day, even if you're moving it a millimeter closer in a week. That compounds with time. Millimeters turns to centimeters, centimeters turns to inches, and eventually you're able to hold things really close and make them clear and have flexibility with both eyes open. And then vision is guiding and leading rather than interference. That's a simple one. Can we do at least one more?

[Podcast Host]

One more fast one? Yeah.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Okay, fast one. Let's call these selfie eye movements. Okay, so you're gonna use a mirror or selfie mode on your phone.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Cover up an eye, flip the button so you can actually see your eye. Don't look away from your eye. And you're gonna slowly turn your head left. Slowly turn your head right.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, I'm irritated just thinking about this.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Diagonals do circles. And that's tapping into the vestibular visual synergy that's needed in the vestibular ocular reflex. For most people, that's gonna make them dizzy, nauseous, and uncomfortable.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, good. I feel better.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

That doesn't most people with a head injury. If you haven't had a head injury, you should be fine with that. Even just doing a little bit of movement. Maybe after two weeks, you're doing a little bit more movement, and after another couple of weeks, even more. Same thing again. One eye and then the other eye. If you're doing any of these with both eyes, we're taking eye coordination, and we don't do that. So hating that is diagnostic for. I got you.

[Podcast Host]

It's a medical term. Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And there's plenty more. And on screen fit. I mean, it's 30 lessons we list. They're very sequentially programmed, and we've had thousands of people go through it with 100% of people who've gone through it seeing a reduction in symptoms. And we've put in massive head injuries. We've put in the highest person's had. Eight diagnosed concussions.

[Podcast Host]

Shake out my eyeballs.

[Closing Host]

Wow.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, good.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

If just doing this is creating this reaction, I would imagine that end of the day, like, you're done. And it's hard to even probably look at loved ones and engage because your visual system is just text.

[Podcast Host]

Well, I have a big capacity, but I think I could be using it differently.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

You said it.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Go, go, go, night night. Go, go, go, night night.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

And I think even just taking your day and chunking it out is going to allow you to perform at a higher level for longer. But ultimately, let's rewire the brain and get the eye brain connection to be solidified, and then you can go, go, go, and only stop when you want to, not because you have to.

[Podcast Host]

So where can people find you?

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

MyVisionFirst.com is our. Our brick and mortar practice, and everything that we do. And we offer digital performance lenses and lots of brain boosting supplements and things on there. That's all on there. Instagram's probably the biggest avenue and it's Dr. Bryce Applebaum, but we spell Applebaum E L, not L E. Because my ancestors wanted to make things hard for us, of course. Easy to find us when it's on, when you're on there. So.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, thanks man.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Thanks for having me.

[Podcast Host]

Appreciate you.

[Dr. Bryce Applebaum]

Absolutely appreciate you.

[Closing Host]

Thanks for spending this time with us today. I know these conversations can bring up a lot and I want you to have room to sit with what you learned and let it land in your own body. If you want more support or you're curious about the next step on your healing path, you can always connect with me. Find me on Instagram, hedetoxnation and explore resources mentioned in this [e-mail] this conversation is shared for education and personal reflection and isn't medical advice. Please always work with your trusted healthcare

[Podcast Host]

providers for your care.

[Closing Host]

I'm really glad you're here and I'll see you in the next video episode.